Sprint vs. intermittent training in young female basketball players

This study aimed at comparing the effects of intermittent and repeated sprint ability training on physiological variables.

Sixteen young female basketball players were randomly allocated to intermittent training (IT=8) or repeated sprint ability training (RST=8) groups. The following outcomes were measured at baseline and after 6 weeks of training: Yo-Yo intermittent recovery (Yo-Yo) and repeated sprint ability (RSA) tests.

For all the variables investigated the effect of training type showed a different trend respect at current knowledge. In the RSA, best time (BT) was a significant main effect of training time (pre- vs. post-) (P<0.0001), and of the interaction training type/time (P=0.03). The RST showed a decrease in BT of 3.1% (P=0.005) while the IT showed a decrease of 6.2% (P<0.0001). In the IT there was a significant main effect of time for the total distance with an increment of 26.9%, and a significant main effect of time in the final speed with an increment of 1.23%.

These findings suggest that the two training methods used in this study can be an effective training strategy for inducing anaerobic and basketball-specific training schedules. Besides, even when IT training is not done at very high speed, it can increase the maximum speed of the RSA.